Article 4 Membership — Appointment
United Kingdom
The group shall be composed of 13 members.
The members of the group shall be appointed by the Commission from specialists with competence in the areas referred to in Articles 2 and 3(1) and who have responded to the public call for applications. The Commission may also establish a pool list of candidates that could not be appointed as permanent members although they were considered suitable for a position in the group in the course of the selection procedure.
This pool list can be used to appoint replacements for members of the group or to appoint as members of the sub-groups.
The members of the group and of the sub-groups shall be appointed in a personal capacity and shall advise the Commission independently of any outside influence.
Members of the group are appointed for a 4-year renewable term of office and may not serve for more than three consecutive mandates. They shall remain in office until such time as they are replaced in accordance with paragraph 6 or their term of office ends.
Members who are no longer capable of contributing effectively to the group’s deliberations, who resign or who do not comply with the conditions set out in paragraph 4 of this Article, or Article 287 of the Treaty, may be replaced for the remainder of their term of office.
Members appointed in a personal capacity shall each year sign an undertaking to act in the public interest and a declaration indicating the absence or existence of any interest which may undermine their objectivity. They shall also declare at each meeting any specific interest which may be considered as prejudicial to their independence in relation to the items on the agenda.
The names of members appointed in a personal capacity in the group and in the sub-groups and those included in the pool list shall be published on the Internet site of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development and in the Register of Expert Groups. These names shall be collected, processed and published in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.